The "Underground" World of Music Forte
"The other day, I received another email from Music Forte stating that I had earned a new commission. I didn't think much of it at the time, because I've built a fairly nice group, and I'm accustomed to receiving those emails. A few days later, I was checking my commission report, and I noticed a grave error. Their reporting showed that I had earned $47 from referring just one member.
At first I thought this was great! But then I started wondering how Music Forte could pay out that much money on just one referral. It didn't make sense. I've seen enough companies struggle or fail because they hadn't balanced their books well.
I have to say, I've enjoyed Music Forte. I've received a lot of great music. I am happy with the CD I received, and to reiterate, I have grown a nice downline. So I was concerned enough that I wrote an email to their support team. As much as I didn't want to lose that hefty commission, I thought they should be made aware of this error that they were making.
I sent an email to find out what was going on. To my surprise, there was no error in the calculation. I had actually earned $47 from one referral, and Music Forte had earned money as well. On top of that, Music Forte was even helping me with my own personal business, and they weren't charging me any additional money.
Before I get too excited, let me slow down and tell you what it is I do. I will not get into the small details of my job, because it wouldn't be right for Music Forte to promote my business to people that have been invited to the program from a different sponsor. With that said, I run a "coaching" service. I have my own website from which I gather leads. On top of that I have organized several audio collections that are presented in my training eBooks.
A few months ago, I decided to create a CD. I visited the Music Forte forums and learned that I could create professional CDs (with bar code, shrink wrap, and laser printing on the disc) for less than $2.00 per unit. On top of that I was able to produce the CDs in small volume. Since I wasn't sure how well they would sell I ordered 10 CDs. When they arrived to my home, I was overly impressed with the great work. They really look professional. I had no idea that it could be done for such a small amount of money.
I was excited now, and wanted to start selling. I remembered that Music Forte's Gold Plan was included in my Platinum subscription. Once again, I was venturing into the unknown. I didn't even know if Music Forte would accept my CD. Like I said, my CD was spoken training material; not music. but you never know what you can get until you ask.
Music Forte would not only help me to sell my CD, but they also advertise it at Amazon.com, Google Products, and their own site. Still I had my reservations. How would people find it? And once they did, would they even want it?
I do not know all the details about how Music Forte promotes their products, but I do know that within the first week of sending my CDs to Music Forte, I sold three!
This is the important part you need to pay close attention to. By adding a CD to my Music Forte profile, I nearly quintupled my regular commission! Turning $10 into $47 is very hefty increase. You really owe it to yourself to understand how this works.
Here is my take on it, broken down by components of the commission earned:
1. Music Forte pays bonuses each week to the top 2 members who referred the most for each and every week. If you haven't noticed this, be sure to pay attention to the email updates that are sent around Monday or Tuesday of each week. I'm proud to say that I was the first place winner once! For that I earned a $25 bonus.
2. As you already know, $10 is paid out for each direct referral. Now my earnings jumped to $35.
3. When I signed up at Music Forte, I remember choosing a CD from the registration page. Apparently this area of the site has been upgraded. The way it works now presents the sponsor's CD (that would be mine, in this case) to the members I refer as their first option for their CD Bonus Gift. I also happened to notice that a preview track is played for the other possible selections. This is going to make new members happy, because they'll be sure they receive the music that they like. But back to ME! :) I priced my CD at $15. Music Forte keeps $3 from each sale. With that $12, my earnings just jumped from $35 to $47.
And then I realized it got even better!
At my coaching website, I had also put the CD on sale. I want to make money wherever I can. What can I say? I'm an ambitious person. During that same week, I had also sold a CD from my own website. I wasn't really prepared for the sale. I had set myself up with PayPal to process the sale. Like I said earlier, I was moving into unfamiliar territory. Nonetheless, there were not any obstacles that interfered with me moving ahead. I simply went to Walgreens and purchased a CD mailer. I went home and wrote out the address of the person who was receiving it. I took it to the post office, and they weighed it and charged me almost $2.00. In total, I had spent roughly $4.00 and approximately one hour of time, to get this CD properly shipped. You see where I'm going with this?
I was making more money and saving more time by using Music Forte's service. Additionally, customers at Music Forte could purchase with any credit card, instead of being restricted to PayPal, like they were on my own site. Best of all, I was turning over my business and growing my business that was not focused on Music Forte (but rather building a network in general), and their fulfillment team was doing all of the "grunt" work for me!
At the end of that day, I was so excited about these new discoveries I had made, that I just got into a "Googling" mode to see what else I could find to help my business.
As it turned out, my seminar was now listed on the first page of Google as a search result provided by Music Forte. Mind you that the seminar name was not the most competitive keyword that people search for. However, Music Forte got it to the top so quickly. My own site was reporting the seminar on page 4 which had climbed up from a page 27. I know about linking strategies, and I have no doubt that the links I placed on my Music Forte profile page played a large part in giving my other business a much needed boost in rankings.
To wrap it all up, I need to go back to my initial concern.
How does Music Forte do this without losing money? From what I learned, they are processing hundreds of orders per week. They maintain an online storefront with over 300,000 products of which the majority of products are not tied in with the affiliate program. So the money given away as a weekly bonus, may be a loss, but a small one, and well worth the initiative to refer members, which helps us all. The $10 bonus is offset by the one-time join fee of $30. The $12 I received for the CD is also offset by that join fee. So Music Forte made $8 from my referral, minus a few bucks I imagine they spend for shipping and handling. My concern was resolved. Music Forte was making money, I was making more money than I ever had, and spending less effort thanks to their Gold Plan fulfillment service, which was a free add-on to my Platinum Plan subscription.
Bottom line is that I made $47 from a referral, while improving greatly with my other business and you can do the same! If there is any part of the above that did not make sense, please go back and read it again. This is the best opportunity I have found in a long time, and being excited about it as I am, I hope that you will not miss out on the incredible potential we all have. Thank you very much Music Forte! Your services have helped me in more ways than I had ever imagined they would."... end of letter.
One thing the writer forgot to mention was the ongoing monthly income they receive for every member who is part of their group... and this is far and away the largest of the four income streams Platinum Plan members receive!
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